Life of the Party

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Life of the Party – 2 out of 5

I really like Melissa McCarthy.  I think she’s incredibly funny and endlessly charming.  When she is in a film, her presence alone convinces me to see the feature.  Sometimes it results in a great and very funny movie (yes, I liked the Ghostbusters reboot, haters) and sometimes it’s not as great as the film could be.  I really wanted to like Life of the Party but ultimately found this one to be a kinda forgettable comedy that does mean well but just can’t provide the goods.

Chris Parnell is in this film.  That man is treasure.

After her husband divorces her and leaves her for another woman, Deanne (McCarthy) is left on her own and struggling to find her way.  With her daughter; Maddie (Molly Gordon), freshly dropped off at college, she decides now is as good as time as any to go back to school and finish her education.  However, she soon learns that school isn’t what she remembered it being and is now struggling to fit in with her daughter and her daughter’s friends and finding love with a much younger man.

Ha, her mom loves her.  What a nerd!

The premise to Life of the Party is pretty simplistic but has the potential for hilarity.  Additionally, it has a great cast.  Finally, the tone of it is on the more lighthearted, more innocent side and doesn’t go for the more outrageous or adult tone that it could go.  It has all the ingredients and this film should have been a decent movie but it just failed to resonate with me.

Just looking at them and you can tell they are the antagonistic girls of the story.

The film is never really doing anything particularly wrong.  The story is solid and has a great pace, the actors are all given great performances and the humor isn’t particularly bad in any sense of the word.  Overall, the film just didn’t capture my attention.  There are plenty of times where I giggled at the feature, I found McCarthy incredibly charming like I always do and genuinely enjoyed the developing relationship between her character and the character of Jack (played by Luke Benward).  However, all the enjoyment I got from these elements just weren’t at high enough levels to make this a winner in my book.  It’s serviceable and never boring but not the greatest example of a comedy lead by the delightful Melissa McCarthy.

If this was an 80s college comedy, there would be a lot of sexual assault happening
and the film would act like it is okay.  Seriously, re-watch those movies and
try not to feel absolutely gross as you do.

Life of the Party, at its most basic level, is serviceable.  It’s never boring and its humor isn’t cringe-inducing but it’s never attention-grabbing or uproariously hilarious either.  The humor is fine in concept but too often felt like it was too good natured and like it was playing it safe rather than going for the laugh.  It’s carried mostly by a great cast and Melissa McCarthy’s undeniable charm but it lacks that certain spark to make the film standout like some of the other work that McCarthy has been involved with.